BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU Soccer team came up short Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 19 Auburn at the LSU Soccer Complex, 2-1.
“Auburn played a great game and we knew coming in it was going to be a difficult battle for us,” said LSU co-head coach Danielle Fotopoulos. “They played outstanding on the 50-50 balls, and we were right there with them and they only beat us by two. We fought hard, we are the fighting Tigers and we fought very hard and stuck with them.”
LSU (6-9-1, 1-6-1 SEC) is now 4-7 all-time against Auburn (12-2-1, 7-0-1 SEC). The Tigers were out shot by Auburn 16-10, but shots on goal were close at five for Auburn and four for LSU.
Auburn would get on the board first in the 16th minute when Sarah Steinmann of Auburn would take a shot that would be blocked by an LSU defender into Steinmann and trickle into the goal.
Auburn would score again in the first half in the 37th minute when Christie Cigno would head the pass from Jac Schwarz into the goal past Tiger goalkeeper Robyn DesOrmeaux. Neither team would score for the rest of the half, and Auburn would take a 2-0 lead at the half.
“Auburn has great forwards, and number two in the middle had a great game for them,” said Fotopoulos. Their goalkeeper is one of the best in the nation.”
The Tigers played aggressive in the second half making several runs, and LSU would get its first goal in the 66th minute. Senior Artie Brown would make her way through a host of Auburn defenders to score from seven yards out to make the score 2-1.
“Artie Brown had an excellent goal,” said Fotopoulos. “She had a couple more opportunities, but we started to execute better in the second half. We need to be able to do that in the first half.”
The goal was Brown’s ninth of the season and her 35th of her career, and she also now has 80 career points. The Baton Rouge native is now one goal away from tying the career goals and points records held by Jackie Cooper. Cooper had 36 goals from 1995-1996 and 82 career points.
LSU would pressure Auburn the last 15 minutes of the game making several runs and taking numerous shots, but Auburn held tight and kept the Tigers from getting the equalizer.
“We were in the game and we played much better in the second half,” said Fotopoulos. “We did better putting pressure on their defense and we were a lot more organized. I think we did a better job possessing the ball and when we possessed the ball better we were able to attack a lot better and make runs.”
The Tigers will split next weekend, as they will host No. 9 Florida on Friday at 7 p.m. CST, and will go to South Carolina on Sunday.
Auburn (12-2-1, 7-0-1 SEC) defeated LSU (6-9-1, 1-6-1 SEC), 2-1
UA 2 0-2
LSU 0 1-1
Scoring: Auburn, Steinmann (5) (unassisted) 15:10, Cigno (assist Schwarz) 36:26 LSU, Brown (9) (unassisted) 65:30
Yellow Cards: LSU, Chelsea Agar (3) 71:35, Kate Ripple (2) 81:19
Attendance: 485